Eastern American Cricket Association
Liberty Sports Club, sporting a restructured outfit, fell by 69 runs to Meten Meer Zorg (MMZ) cricket club in their EACA Division A Round Robin fixture at Flushing Park on July 29th.
Zaieed Majid hit a brilliant 45 in Meten Meer Zorg's win over Liberty Sports Club. Photo by Shiek Mohamed
MMZ won the toss and took first strike but LSC would put immediate dents in the batting line up. Imtiaz Hassan had Amarnauth Persaud (8) caught and Thakur Singh followed with the prize wicket of USA national player Andy Mohammed (25) shortly after to leave MMZ at 40 for 2.
The in- form pair of Travis Ross and Deonauth Baksh threatened to once again put up a huge partnership for MMZ but Thakur would strike another crucial blow to remove Ross for 17. Andy Harrichand came into the attack and announced himself by clean bowling Baksh (28) and trapping Saud Hussain (5) LBW. Ramratan Jagnarine picked up K. Nandkumar (3) caught by Thakur at long on to leave MMZ in some trouble at 6 for 106 after 20 overs.
Zaieed Majid (45) and the veteran Ajaz Aasgarally (27) staged a resilient 79 runs partnership to pull MMZ back into the game, however. The pair struck the ball with ease as the LSC bowlers toiled for 13 overs before being able to separate the pair. Majid was bowled by Harrichand in the 33rd over and this triggered a collapse of the final three wickets to close the MMZ innings at 205 all out in 36.5 overs.
Bowling for Liberty Sports Club Harrichand picked up 3 for 42 while Hassan, Thakur Singh and Vidour Singh picked up 2 wickets each and Jagnarine picked up 1.
The fairly depleted LSC batting line up in their reply to what would ordinarily be a pedestrian chase never posed any great threat to MMZ. Openers Bose Persaud (3) and Harrichand (5) fell early. Danesh Deonarain and Imtiaz Hassan staged a fighting partnership to boost the score to 75 for 3 before Deonarain fell for 20. Hassan continued on but kept on losing partners after which he finally held out to mid-on for 35.
Later in the order Jay Singh chipped in with a run a ball 25 and Vidour made 11 to be the only batsmen into double figures for LSC. Liberty only managed 135 all out in the 39th over in reply to MMZ.
Rayhanul Islam had 4 for 25.
Bowling for MMZ, medium pacer, Rayhanul Islam picked up 4 for 25 while Ross and Amarnauth picked up 2 wickets each and Hemendra Ramdiehall chipped in with 1 wicket.
The loss for LSC, the 4th consecutive for the team, has effectively brought an end to their hopes of qualifying for the semi-final stage of the EACA 40 over competition with 3 games left in the round robin.
MMZ’s win, on the other hand, keeps them in good standing as they vie for one of the 4 top spots in the EACA Division A Power40 playoffs.
In next week’s play LSC will take on Big Apple at Brentwood while MMZ will face off against Hillside Sports Club at Bay Park.